


Final Fantasy VII and the not-so-special protagonist

by Metabird (wheatear)



Series: Approaches to storytelling [7]
Category: Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Final Fantasy VII Spoilers, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Ordinary heroes, Royalty, Special Protagonist, Spoilers, Trope Subversion, Working Class VS Upper Class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23127691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheatear/pseuds/Metabird
Summary: Everyone knows that one spoiler in Final Fantasy VII, but there's another that turns the entire story upside down. A meta essay on how FFVII subverts the special protagonist narrative.
Series: Approaches to storytelling [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653421
Comments: 7
Kudos: 22
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Final Fantasy VII and the not-so-special protagonist

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted for the March Meta Matters Challenge!

Many _Final Fantasy_ games follow the standard formula of a [special protagonist](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23065765). In FFVIII, Squall is an elite mercenary destined to take down the villain of the game. He thinks he's an orphan but his father is the President of Esthar. Zidane in FFIX is... well, that's a spoiler but while he grows up as a common thief he's definitely not ordinary, and Garnet is a princess. In FFX Tidus is the son of a star Blitzball player (and a star himself); Yuna is the daughter of a High Summoner. The journeys of their fathers are a key part of the game plot. FFXII is kind of odd because Vaan is an ordinary thief but he's more of a protagonist by default; the actual story revolves around Ashe who is a princess trying to restore her kingdom. Noctis in FFXV is not only a prince, he's [destined to become the King of Kings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23016412), and Lunafreya is the Oracle. In most of these games, you're either following the story of royalty or a close equivalent like in FFX.  
  
Enter _Final Fantasy VII_. In FFVII you start off following the story of Avalanche who are a bunch of commoners rebelling against their oppressors in the form of the Shinra company. You join Barret and Tifa, who are working class (Barret is a former coal miner, Tifa works in a bar) and who both live in the slums.  
  
Now, at first it appears that our hero Cloud Strife is in effect slumming it (pun intended) when he comes to work for Avalanche, because he's an ex-SOLDIER. 1st Class, of course. He was part of Shinra's military elite, the best of the best, and the villain of the game is Sephiroth, who is another 1st Class SOLDIER and therefore Cloud's peer. In any other story, this would be true. In any other story, our hero Cloud would fall for his special love interest Aerith: the ordinary girl from the slums who turns out to be extraordinary because she's really the last of the Cetra and her magical powers are the only thing that can save the world.  
  
(As a side note, I do think the special protagonist trope plays into the love triangle in FFVII too. If you're looking for your special hero to meet a special girl, then it has to be Cloud/Aerith. But one of the things I like about Cloud/Tifa is that you have two characters who are explicitly ordinary, who both share the same background growing up in Nibelheim, and who get through extraordinary circumstances together and come out stronger at the end of it. They weren't born with any advantages and so when we see them stand together in the face of adversity and survive _because of_ the love and trust they have for each other, I find that even more powerful.)  
  
Then we come to the great plot twist in FFVII, the one we don't see coming because we're so conditioned to the special protagonist trope. And I'm not talking about Aerith's death, although you can see from the above exactly why it is so shocking. I'm talking about Cloud's true identity.  
  
Of course Cloud is an ex-SOLDIER! Of course he was part of an elite military force. Why wouldn't he be, he's the hero. And then this is all yanked from under our feet and we learn that _Cloud was a nobody_. He was one of the low-level blue-uniformed mooks, the one we didn't even notice in the first flashback because who pays attention to nameless faceless NPCs.  
  
His mother is an ordinary woman who lived in Nibelheim. We don't even learn anything about his father. He was an ordinary kid who grew up with a dream of becoming special and failed, and he was so ashamed of this reality that he lied about it to everyone around him and even to himself. Cloud isn't special. Or rather, Cloud isn't special by virtue of his background or his role or his destiny, like every other protagonist I've talked about in this post.  
  
**Cloud is a hero because of _what he does_.** Because even though he never made it into SOLDIER, he found the strength and courage to fight off Sephiroth in the Nibelheim reactor. He doesn't have a great destiny or a privileged background; he was a kid who got caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and yet he takes on Shinra and Sephiroth and he wins. I love it. That speaks to me, far more than princes and princesses taking back their kingdoms. These are ordinary people standing up against the elite and saving the Planet as a result.  
  
Honestly, I think FFVII's story is even more resonant today than it was twenty years ago given what's happening with the environment and what the people in power are doing about it. At the end of the game, the Planet saves itself. It's interesting to note that Holy, the power possessed by our special protagonist Aerith, _isn't_ what saves the day. Holy doesn't work. That's not to downplay the role that Aerith plays in the story; she's absolutely central to the narrative and it's her face we see at the end, but the point is that Aerith couldn't do it alone. In another story, Holy would have saved the Planet from Meteor and the special protagonist narrative would have prevailed. In this story, it's everyone. The entire Planet. I love that too.


End file.
